Effects of Basketball and Baduanjin Exercise Interventions on Problematic Smartphone Use and Mental Health among College Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Tao Xiao; Can Jiao; Jie Yao; Lin Yang; Yanjie Zhang; Shijie Liu; Igor Grabovac; Qian Yu; Zhaowei Kong; Jane Jie Yu; Jieting Zhang

doi:10.1155/2021/8880716

Effects of Basketball and Baduanjin Exercise Interventions on Problematic Smartphone Use and Mental Health among College Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2021 Jan 28:2021:8880716. doi: 10.1155/2021/8880716. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Tao Xiao¹, Can Jiao², Jie Yao³, Lin Yang^{4

5}, Yanjie Zhang^{6

7}, Shijie Liu⁸, Igor Grabovac⁹, Qian Yu⁶, Zhaowei Kong¹⁰, Jane Jie Yu¹¹, Jieting Zhang¹²

Affiliations

¹ College of Mathematics and Statistics, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
² Center for Lifestyle and Mental Health, School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
³ School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), Shenzhen 518055, China.
⁴ Department of Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention Research, Cancer Care Alberta, Alberta Health Services, Calgary, AB, Canada.
⁵ Departments of Oncology and Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.
⁶ Exercise and Mental Health Laboratory, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
⁷ Health and Exercise Science Laboratory, Institute of Sports Science, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
⁸ School of Physical Education, Jianghan University, Wuhan 430056, China.
⁹ Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Centre for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
¹⁰ Faculty of Education, University of Macau, Macao, Zhuhai, China.
¹¹ Department of Sport and Exercise Science, College of Education, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
¹² School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.

Abstract

Problematic smartphone use (PSU) has become a prevalent issue worldwide. Previous studies suggest that physical exercising may effectively reduce smartphone users' addiction levels. Comparisons and further evaluations on the long-term effects of different types of exercise-based interventions on treating PSU remain to be investigated. Objective. We investigated if group-based basketball and Baduanjin exercise (a type of Qigong) would reduce PSU and improve the mental health of college students and whether such effects would be sustained. A twelve-week experiment was conducted, where 96 eligible Chinese college students with PSU were randomly assigned to two intervention arms (i.e., basketball and Baduanjin exercises) and a control arm. Outcome measures, including PSU (measured by the Mobile Phone Addiction Index in Chinese (MPAI)) and mental health indices for anxiety (measured by Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SRAS)), loneliness (measured by the short-form of the UCLA Loneliness Scale (UCLA-LS)), inadequacy (measured by the revised Janis and Field's Feelings of Inadequacy Scale (FIS)), and stress (measured by the Chinese version of Perceived Stress Scale (CPSS)) were collected at the baseline, the end of week 12, and the two-month follow-up. A Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) model for longitudinal data was utilized in analyses. Results. Both exercise interventions demonstrated significant effects on decreasing PSU (basketball: p < 0.01; Baduanjin: p < 0.01), feelings of anxiety (basketball: p < 0.01; Baduanjin: p=0.04), loneliness (basketball: p < 0.01; Baduanjin: p < 0.01), inadequacy (basketball: p < 0.01; Baduanjin: p < 0.01), and perceived stress (basketball: p < 0.01; Baduanjin: p=0.04), at the end of interventions. At two months after interventions, both exercise interventions demonstrated significant effects on decreasing PSU (basketball: p < 0.05; Baduanjin: p < 0.05), feelings of anxiety (basketball: p < 0.01; Baduanjin: p=0.03), loneliness (basketball: p < 0.01; Baduanjin: p < 0.01), and inadequacy (basketball: p < 0.01; Baduanjin: p=0.01), but not for feeling of stress. Furthermore, group-based basketball demonstrated larger improvements for all these significant results on reducing PSU and meanwhile improving their related mental health parameters among college students.